A couple of years ago, finding a newly built home to buy was as hard as finding an open seat in a nice restaurant on Valentine’s Day. The builders weren’t building, knowing that the buyers weren’t looking.

But last month saw a sharp spike in sales of new homes, according to estimates by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

A whole new crop of homebuyers may, for the first time, be considering the possibility of investing in a home that, at the moment, exists only in the form of a drawing on a map. It’s an exciting process — new-home buyers can often customize the place to their own wishes, from the layout to the counter tops to various amenities.

It’s also a time for caution. First, there’s the matter of construction quality. The model house in the development, if there is one, probably looks shiny, new, and perfect. But not every builder is attentive to quality, and some are more attentive to speed and appearance than anything else — leading to horrible customer surprises down the line, as described in Nolo’s article, “Newly Built Houses: Pros and Cons of Buying.”

Then there’s the fact that many homes in development — particularly, but not always, if they’re condos or townhouses — require all owners to join a homeowners’ association (HOA). That offers many advantages, such as someone to maintain common areas and watch over community quality and uniformity.

But it also means ongoing monthly dues, the possibility of expensive special assessments, and a level of control over your life that not even a landlord could exert. (“Sorry, your dog’s too big, you can’t fly that flag, and you can’t hang your laundry outside.”) For more on that, see “Homeowners’ Associations (HOAs) and CC&Rs: Know What You’re Getting Into.”

And when you’re done with all that reading, don’t forget to make those Valentine’s Day reservations!

About Ilona Bray

The blog is written by Ilona Bray, a Nolo editor and co-author of Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home. Ilona Bray is a former attorney, now author and editor at Nolo. She has co-authored many popular Nolo real estate titles, including Selling a House in a Tough Market and First-Time Landlord. In her spare time, she enjoys walking the hidden paths in her neighborhood and visiting weekend open houses.